Game stutters in sli mode

Is the bridge stable? it has to be seated perfect.

i have tried with the bridge on and off.

i have 2x8600gt's which doesn't actually require the bridge.

might i add again, sli will work fine on another monitor, but not my primary monitor.

Theres your problem.

the monitor?

but it will work if it's not the primary.. it even worked sometimes on the primary monitor.

why in the world would games stutter in sli mode every 60 seconds?

Sounds like the cables are crap, have you tried switching them around?

Also what PSU do you have? Could be a power problem.

yup, already tried switching the cables. the psu: antec true power trio

ok this pretty much solved my problem.

i simply unplug the dvi cable from the video card of the secondary monitor when playing games. the 2nd card, it doesn't seem to matter if the monitor stays plugged in.

is this a psu issue? it's not a bad psu, maybe i need to clean it ..  
any further help much appreciated, thanks again weehamish for your patience.

edit: just to add, if i plug the monitor i remove back in, i get the stutters. to me this does seem like a power issue, but it could also be the pci-e slot or the video card. will wait for an expert answer.

Did you set the card to multiscreen in nvidia control panel btw?

i only get that option when i disable sli, with sli enabled i can't use multiple screens.

i think i'm fine with this solution, i'm just wondering now if any of my hardware is going bad* (psu, gpu, mobo)

It could be that although SLi with multiple screens is now possible thanks to driver updates your cards just aren't powerful enough to do SLi whilst running more than one monitor.

I second that. 2 8600's really isn't much considering you have 3 monitors. Like the OP said, you might just have to deal with unplugging a monitor when you game. =/

Ohh for some reason i thought he had 2 5870s :\, well yes monkey is right i think there pretty old now so dont expect too much from them.

physix doesn't work with these cards (8600's)

i didn't get the pause freeze stutter, however you want to call it every 60 seconds
until recently.

i'm leaning towards a power problem like you said weehamish. only way for me to confirm is to try with another power supply.

just again for the record, with these cards you can't be in sli mode while having all three monitors enabled. it's either disable sli to have all of the monitors running, or enable sli for your primary monitor.

when i enable sli for my primary monitor i get these stutters in-game every 60 seconds, and it's happening while watching movies on my desktop etc.. the solution to stop the stutters is i'll have to unplug the monitor next to my primary from the vga (1), the stutters go away. my question now is (trying to trouble shoot what's causing it) if the psu is causing the stutters, or my cards are just getting old?

thanks again guys for the responses, this has been rattling my brain for a few months now.

The 8600's do support PhysX and are listed as the minimum card that can be used as a PhysX card.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_gpus.html

that version of my card is the 256 version, mine are only 128.
minimum is the 8600 with 256mb.

i'm still concerned if my vgas are dieing or my psu or other.

Ah, you didn't mention that before.

There's another reason... extra memory will also aid in higher resolutions (or multiple monitors).

Why can't you run multiple monitors with SLI? I thought any 8xxx Series card or higher supports Multi-Monitor's with SLI.

the version i have doesn't support multi monitor sli mode, which is pysx. i'd need to upgrade my cards.